i had just been to Alaska and before he left, Gary PM'd me about the 130/80 Tourance front i had used on that ride. he ended up using the same setup and ran the front 30,000 miles. that and some other prep work, the Versys would be a good choice for a run south.

speaking of Alaska, i just delivered a Versys from Denver to Anchorage, ran great, 5000 miles.

Gary is the guy that damaged his oil pan while using the first gen Algard skid plate.

http://www.kawasakiversys.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5141&page=4I hit a rock and damaged my oil pan, now we are on the mountain with no motos. I was injured, Ron hiked to a village and borrowed a donkey, we loaded it up and headed back to the village. We stayed there for three days, no phones or vehicles. I got into lima tonight, Ron is on a bus, a lot more later. It's just another set back, the trip will continue!

Got news this weekend that the green machine has ridden its last ride. 62k miles of fun came to an end with total compression loss. In memory this pic is from the last real trip which was to Montreal last year.

Got news this weekend that the green machine has ridden its last ride. 62k miles of fun came to an end with total compression loss. In memory this pic is from the last real trip which was to Montreal last year.

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Sorry to hear, would be interested in any and all info you can give us on possible cause, final failure parts, etc. What is your next bike gonna be?

Sorry to hear, would be interested in any and all info you can give us on possible cause, final failure parts, etc. What is your next bike gonna be?

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First I'll start by saying I'm no mechanic, I just ride 'em. Second, I didn't have the shop put too much time into it so its not like they took the thing apart to make a thorough assessment, I knew it was bad because in all the time it has never given me a single problem. So the way it was acting on my last trip home from work and that it wouldn't start at all the next day gave me enough clue. They said I blew oil out of the head in right past the exhaust, which tells them a problem with the valves combined with the mileage were probably the cause. They also asked me if I used fuel stabilizer which I never did, and they said that ethanol wear was also likely cause of valve failure.

Once I get the bike back from them I want to take it apart and I'll take some pics for you guys. In the mean time I emailed Kawasaki, my warranty expired in March and I'm hoping they will help me out in someway. I've heard that they tent to be rather customer friendly.

As for whats the next bike will be? I would really like to try out something different. However, I use this to get to work daily, year round, save for the snow/ice days. My commute is 140 miles round trip so many factors need to be satisfied such as handling on highway just as well as in Manhattan while trying not to get killed by cabbies, it has to be relatively small and narrow so that I can lane split Manhattan rush hour traffic. Once I'm off of that awful island most of my ride home is pretty smooth sailing. It has to be comfortable. It has to be super reliable. It has to be cheap to maintain/fix which pretty much excludes anything other then a Japanese bike. And decent mileage is helpful too.

The Versys fit all those points perfectly. Even with a dented from rim (again gift from Manhattan), it rode perfectly. Three years ago when I got this bike I did about a month of research and Versys was the only one to meet all requirements. I haven't looked for anything yet but seeing what the latest offering were at this years motorcycle show I'm going to guess that the Versys is still the only bike that will be completely useful to me.

Fixed it can be. However, they quoted me for 5 parts that they knew would be needed and the labor to the tune of $2600. It wouldn't be very wise of me to put what is about a third of the cost of a new bike into it.

The shop explanation sounds like bs to me. For sudden total failure something needs to break: valve, con rod, cam chain etc would leave you at the side of the road. You said that it ran rough on way home and would not start next day, but that doesn't explain the above parts failing. If any of them fail it spells sudden death with accompanying noise (clatter, bang etc) and then you're coasting to the side of the road.

I would like to hear more about this, the first V failure I've heard of, at a very young age: 62000 is not much and the explanation is weak. Fuel stabilizer? I call horse$hit. High mileage? more smelly crap.

the shop explanation sounds like bs to me. For sudden total failure something needs to break: Valve, con rod, cam chain etc would leave you at the side of the road. You said that it ran rough on way home and would not start next day, but that doesn't explain the above parts failing. If any of them fail it spells sudden death with accompanying noise (clatter, bang etc) and then you're coasting to the side of the road.

I would like to hear more about this, the first v failure i've heard of, at a very young age: 62000 is not much and the explanation is weak. Fuel stabilizer? I call horse$hit. High mileage? More smelly crap.

A bent or swallowed valve would only result in compression loss in one cylinder.

The repair shop is fulla sh*t. Ethanol or gas stabilizer have nothing to do with your problem. I understand you are just going to replace the bike and that is fine. They are BSing you or do not know what is really wrong. It may not even be "Total compression loss" I can't tell from here.

You have one heck of a commute. I ride my V for the same reason. I also have an R1200R but don't want to ride it to work daily, so the V takes over. Its a blast to ride a light quick sort of intense bike to work, then fire up the 1200 on the weekends and for trips.

Have browsed many blogs for awhile just starting to post and get more involved in the motorcycle community. A couple trips already this year, one to Louis and Clark Reservoir and one out to Lake McConaughy this last weekend (no Lake Mac pics unfortunately) rode up to meet up with some off-road jeep buddies that were camping out there. Got my versys used in 2009 with 1700miles and have really enjoyed it. Im from Lincoln Nebraska.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35500874@N07/9250103425/" title="IMG_0632 by davewillhutch, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3827/9250103425_6cdeca7938.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_0632"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35500874@N07/9252869120/" title="IMG_1623 by davewillhutch, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/9252869120_1df3193429.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1623"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35500874@N07/9252882894/" title="IMG_1597 by davewillhutch, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5541/9252882894_991ecff153.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_1597"></a>